Myths and legends about land? Go, go, go!

China for thousands of years, there are many immortals can be classified as the land of mountain gods. A few examples may be incomplete.

One: the land god.

Origin of the Land God: There was a custom of offering sacrifices to the earth in ancient China. This institution is the smallest administrative unit in this place. In the Book of Rites, it is noted that "Bao Qunju, who is below the doctor, has more than a hundred people, so he can set up a society" and "Records of the Five Elements of Han Dynasty" is also called "the old system, and the twenty-five societies are one society". The ancients respected heaven and earth. "The land is vast and it is impossible to worship the world, so the fief is a country and a memorial to the country." In order to repay the gift of the earth, the social gods were called social public or land in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and even worse. The social god didn't have a name at the beginning. After the Eastern Jin Dynasty, people regarded officials who did good deeds or were upright during their lifetime as land gods, so they had personalities and surnames. The book "Social Gods" in the Taoist classic "Taoism only rewards ghosts and gods" once quoted the Catalogue of Ghosts and Gods in Laozi's "Heaven and Earth" as saying: "Shi Jing is a social god, and his surname is Huang Mingchong. This is from Liyang, Jiujiang, Yangzhou. Shiwan is listed as a master of famous mountains and gods in the world, and all social ministers follow it. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many people took celebrities as their places.

Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, with the gradual improvement of the feudal system from the central to the grass-roots level, the land god has also evolved into the lowest-level small god who can only manage the local area in the Taoist order. Jiang, a native of Guangling, died of chasing thieves in Searching for the Gods in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. After Sun Quan came to power in Soochow, Jiang appeared and said, "I want to be a land god for this and take my blessing for the people." .

Second, supplement the landowner.

The god of the earth is called the earth among the people in later generations, and the altar (social altar) that sacrifices to the earth has evolved into a land temple. In China, among many sacred families, the land god is the most popular god. In the ancient countryside of China, it is impossible to have other temples, but it is also impossible to have land temples. The land Lord lives in the land temple. If the temple is spacious and the food is good, he will also move his grandmother to live with him. The landlord is the parent, and he has to take care of everything on the land, big or small. Ghosts, monsters and evil spirits have also been registered on the land, so even the Monkey King, the Monkey King who made havoc in heaven, sometimes looks for him. The Monkey King promised the monks of the Tang Dynasty to go to the West to learn from the scriptures. Wherever he goes, he always calls out the local land and asks what happened. Origin and formation in general folk beliefs, most gods have a clear origin, but there are many sources of land gods and countless legends, two of which are examples.

One theory is that Zhang Fude, an official of the Zhou Dynasty, was born in Zhou Wuwang on February 2, 2002. He has been clever and filial since childhood. At the age of 36, he was the chief tax collector of the government, honest and diligent, and loved the people. He died in Zhou Muwang for three years at the age of 102. A poor family was worshipped by four big stones. Soon, he became rich from poverty, and the people believed in God's blessing. He jointly built a temple and made a golden statue.

Another way of saying it is: Zhang Mingde (or Zhang Fude), the servant of the Zhou doctor, whose master went to other places to be an official, leaving his little daughter at home. Zhang Mingde took his daughter to find his father. In a snowstorm, he took off his clothes to protect his master. As a result, he froze to death on the road. At the end of his life, the word "The Great Immortal in Nantianmen is a God" appeared in the air, and he was named loyal minister. When he went to the doctor to study loyalty and build a temple to worship, Zhou Wuwang said, "If so, the heart can be described as a doctor." Therefore, the land belongs to the person who wears the hat of the prime minister.

Third, Ju Mang.

(or famous sentence dragon) is a descendant of Yes, whose name is heavy, and he is Fu. After death, he became a wood god (spring god), in charge of the germination and growth of trees.

The sun rises from Fusang every morning. The holy tree Fusang belongs to Ju Mang, and the place where the sun rises also belongs to Ju Mang. Ju Mang was very important in ancient times, and the Spring Festival was held every year. His true colors are a bird-a bird with a face, riding two dragons, and then he has no influence at all. But we can see him in sacrificial ceremonies and New Year pictures: in spring, he became a shepherd boy riding an ox, with a double bun on his head and a wicker whip in his hand, also known as a headstrong boy.

What is the image of Ju Mang? According to the materials, the original image of Ju Mang, the goddess of spring, is a bird with a human face. "Shan Hai Jing Overseas East longitude" said: "In Ju Mang, a bird has a face and rides two dragons." Ju Mang's bird face shows that Dabaigao tribe living in the east was originally a tribe with bird as its totem belief, and Ju Mang God may be the totem god of this tribe. Is Ju Mang a woman or a man? There is no material to explain. But the mythical Dabaigao tribe is already a patriarchal tribal society. It is also reported that the face of God Ju Mang is square. Influenced by historical myths and patriarchal society, the map of Ju Mang in later generations has almost completely become the image of an ancient courtier, except for a few hairs called "mans" on the top of the head.

Fourth, Houtu

The early land god was Houtu, whose original meaning was Chang Jun, so Houtu meant the length of the land and the king of the land. In fact, it is not the name of the land god, but just the general name of the land god. It is said that the earliest person who served as Hou Di or the Land God was the son of Gong Gong, who was a dragon. As a land god, the dragon body is naturally a dragon body. Yu also served as an official, controlling water and pacifying Kyushu. In fact, Yu is the foundation of the earth, and his position as a god of nature is well deserved.

At first, it was just a general term for the land god, and later it gradually evolved into the name of the land god, while some gods such as Dragon and Yu were forgotten and evolved into specific gods. Because in the concept of the ancients, the sky belongs to Yang, the earth belongs to Yin, Yang is male and Yin is female, so Houtu gradually became a female, and was called the Queen of Houtu by the people, and the gods in Houtu Temple were also female.

Because people are buried in the earth after death, the land god is in charge of the underworld. Therefore, Hou Di has been in charge of the management of the underworld since ancient times. Later, landowners and landlords all over the country still inherited this function. Therefore, people should report to the land temple first after death, because the undead are allowed to report to the land Lord and the land Lord.

Empress Chengtian imitates the earth, which is the fourth god among the "Four Emperors" in Taoism. Paired with the jade emperor who presided over the heaven, she is the goddess who dominates the mountains and rivers of the earth.

The belief in thick soil originated from the land worship in ancient China. "Book of Rites Special Sacrifice" says: "The earth carries everything, and the sky hangs like an elephant. Borrowing materials from the earth and taking the method of heaven is a respect for the sky and a kiss to the earth. So the people in the church have good news. " In ancient times, people were born on the ground, so they were "near the ground" and "admired and worshipped", so the worship of "Houtu" began in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Empress Chengtian imitates the earth, which is the fourth god among the "Four Emperors" in Taoism. Paired with the jade emperor who presided over the heaven, she is the goddess who dominates the mountains and rivers of the earth.

The belief in thick soil originated from the land worship in ancient China. "Book of Rites Special Sacrifice" says: "The earth carries everything, and the sky hangs like an elephant. Borrowing materials from the earth and taking the method of heaven is a respect for the sky and a kiss to the earth. So the people in the church have good news. " In ancient times, people were born on the ground, so they were "near the ground" and "admired and worshipped", so the worship of "Houtu" began in the Spring and Autumn Period.

There are many records about Houtu, mainly concentrated in Zuozhuan, Book of Rites, Shan Mei Classic and Huainanzi. In the article, Houtu is called the son of Gonggong and the God of the Central Committee. For example:

"Twenty-nine Years of Zuo Zhuan Gong": "Therefore, the official has five elements, which refer to five senses, namely, wood is for Zhu Rong, fire is for Admiralty, water is for mystery, and soil is for thick soil. Zhuan Xu's son, Li, is Zhu Rong. Gonggong scientists have a saying called "dragon", which means "being buried". After that, it is the soil of society.

"Rites of Sacrifice Law": "The father-in-law is the king of Kyushu, and his son's name is Hou Tu, so he worships it as a society.

"Book of Rites and Moon Order": "The central soil, its emperor Huangdi, its god is behind the soil." (Zheng Note: King Yuzhu, the god of local officials, is also the son of Zhuan Xu and a local official. )

"Shan Mei Neijing": "Gong Gong gives birth to the afterlife, choking in the afterlife, choking for ten years." Guo Pu's Note: Twelve children were born, all named after the age of, so they are called clouds. Yuan Ke's full translation of Shan Mei Jing: In ancient mythology, it was said that choke was born at the age of twelve or at the age of one in December.

"Shan Mei Jing Ye Xijing": "Li (Houtu) choked on the ground, in the west pole, in order to walk the sun, the moon and the stars." This choke is the god of time. )

Shan Mei Jing Ye Bei Jing: "In the wild, there is a mountain called Chengdu Zaitian. Some people named two yellow snakes Kuafu. After being born locally, Xin was born in Kuafu. " Hao Yixing's Note: Houtu, the son of a Gonggong family, see Zuo Zhuan in the 19th year of Zhao and Jing.

"Shan Mei Neijing": "Together, the earth is born." Yuan Ke's "Complete Translation of Shan Mei Jing" case: "Guoyu Luyu" says: "Gonggong is the overlord of Nine, and his son is called the earth, which can level Nine." That is, the history of "working together to breed the earth".

"Evocation of Chu Ci": "Yuan Jun is more secluded here." Wang Yi's Note: Especially all of them are underground soil governance. Underground ghost, so it's called moderation.

"Huainanzi Astronomical Training": "China is also its emperor Huangdi, and its auxiliary soil is also."

The above records about Hou Di, some appear as immortals, some as ordinary people, and some record official names, all of which are men. However, in the ancient tradition of China, the sky is sunny and the ground is cloudy. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jin Wen, the word "Hou" is the shape of a woman. As for "earth", the explanation of the name and Heaven said: "Earth, spit it, can spit everything.

The word "Houtu" first appeared in several Confucian classics. For example, Shangshu Wucheng has the words "sue the emperor's land", Zuo Zhuan's Eighteen Years of Wengong has the words "make the master slap Pepsi", and Li Zhouguan's pure uncle has the words "Wang Dafang, sue the land first". Judging from these sentences, Houtu is a ruler who enjoys high authority. Any major event in the country should be reported to him first and let him manage it.

So what's the situation? We must examine it from the historical records. "Twenty-nine Years of Zuo Zhuan Zhao Guang" said, "The soil is like the back soil." Houtu is both "soil" and "soil", which shows that he has a lot to do with the land. So what is "soil correction"? Let's take a look at what the word "positive" means. The right man is opposite to evil. As a full-time worker. There is a saying in Zuo Zhuan Liu Zang Gong that Du Yu, an annotator in the Western Jin Dynasty, noted that "the five senses are the length of the five senses", indicating that an upright person is indeed a chief executive in official position, that is, the highest among the chief executives. What did the director do? Nature is a question of leadership and management. Therefore, the so-called "Zheng Tu" is the highest official in charge of land management. As mentioned earlier, since Zheng Tu and Houtu are equal, Houtu is the highest official in land management. However, there is a new problem. Why did the Chief Executive receive the word "Hou"? It also has its meaning. Shangshu Mo Yu once said, "After overcoming difficulties, I will overcome them." People who overcome difficulties are called overcoming difficulties, that is, completing tasks. Translated, after the task is completed, I finished my task. The ministers here are obviously relative. According to Guo Moruo's textual research on Oracle Bone Inscriptions, they are "the same things with the people" and "slaves in ancient times" in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, that is, the working people. Since it is relative to the masses, it is of course the master of the masses. In the same text of Shangshu, there is also a saying that "post-non-public", which just illustrates this point. In short, the queen means the monarch, and there is no right or wrong. Houtu is the monarch who manages the land. According to Yang Zhao's Rebuilding Taining Hall in Song Dynasty, Houdi is the most revered land god.

Is the most respected god in this land a man or a woman? Worth studying. "Nine years of Zuo Zhao's official career" said: "My father-in-law's family has a son called' Dragon', which is the last soil"; The Book of Rites Sacrifice says, "My father-in-law rules Kyushu, and his son Hou Tu can make Kyushu peaceful." Both of these books refer to Houtu as the son of Gonggong, the son and the man, so Houtu is a man. However, in the Houtu Temple established by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the image of Houtu is female, and later called the Virgin and Queen. Why? It turns out that it is also recorded in ancient books that Hou Di is a woman. "Wen Tong Kao" contains: "When the Emperor of the Han and Yuan Dynasties worshiped the land, the high position followed." High position, Lv Zhi, the wife of Emperor Gaozu, also matched Lv Hou with the God of the Earth, indicating that the God of the Earth was a woman. "The Ancestral History of the Later Han Dynasty" planted: "In the first year of Guangwu Central Plains, the high queen matched the land, the land was the land god, and the high queen matched it. It can be seen that the land god was a woman. Tongdian, Book of Jin and Book of Song also recorded the matching of ancestors and queens when Cao and Dong Jin became emperors and offered sacrifices to the land gods. All these show that at that time, people regarded the God of the Land as a woman, that is, Hou Di was a woman.

At this point, should Hou Di be a man or a woman? This becomes a problem. In order to understand it, we must start with the famous Zhouyi. The fifth chapter of the Book of Changes: "One yin and one yang are called Tao", and Tao is the law of the change of the universe. Here, the interaction of Yin and Yang formed the law of the change of the universe, thus the concept and function of Yin and Yang were first put forward. The sixth chapter of the book of changes, the biography of copula, says: "dry, yang; Kun, the matter of yin is also. Chapter 11 of Zhouyi Shuo Gua Zhuan says: "Dry, for heaven, for father" and "Kun, for earth, for mother". "That is to say, heaven is male; The earth-yin girl. Furthermore, from the perspective of divination, the dry divination symbolizes heaven and the Kun divination symbolizes earth. Guo Moruo said in the article "Social Life in the Period of Zhouyi": "Draw a male root and divide it into a female yin", and also explained that the day is male and the land is female. This view of heaven and earth is the earliest and most authoritative definition of the nature of heaven and earth in China's classical philosophy, and no one can deny it until today. Since the earth is a woman, the most sacred representative of the earth, Houtu, naturally belongs to women. In this way, it makes sense that the image of Houtu Temple is the image of the Virgin Mary. This change from a goddess to a goddess reflects people's repeated and tortuous understanding of the nature of the earth and is a manifestation of people's cognitive ability improvement.

Since Hou Di is the highest female land god, she and Nu Wa are naturally connected. The book "Customs in Ba Huang" records the legends in ancient China, and leads the cloud to "Wei Shu in the Spring and Autumn Period". In ancient times, the so-called emperors, the Yellow Emperor of Huang San and Ren Huang were Fuxi, Nuwa and Shennong respectively. Since Nu Wa is the emperor here, she naturally belongs to the same person as the most respected God of the land. The statue of Houtu Temple, which was re-carved by Chen Bingqiu in Jiajing of Ming Dynasty, is called "Houtu is the emperor" and also called Houtu Emperor. It can be seen that Houtu is inseparable from Nuwa of Huangdi. In other words, Nu Wa is the afterlife, and the afterlife is Nu Wa. Can this two-in-one statement be established? Yes Guo Moruo said in the article "Ancient Society in Oracle Bone Inscriptions": "In myths and legends, it is common for one person to become more than two people and one thing to become more than two things." After textual research, he came to the conclusion that "Di Ku and Shun Di are one person". So we can also boldly say that Houtu and Nuwa are really two names of the same person. This is the smoothest inference and the most reasonable judgment. From this, we can also say that Houtu Temple is the ancient grave shade in today's Wanrong Village. It was Loi Wo Temple. From today on, we can call the most revered god of the land and the most authoritative one as Houtu Nuwa.

Five, the city god (this should be classified as related)

China folk and Taoism believe in "explaining words by writing", which is the god who guards the city.

"City, and people also", "yellow, city also. There is water to say pond, but no water to say patent. There is also a saying in the Book of Changes that "the city can be restored to the imperial court, and teachers cannot be used". The use of the word "city god" was first seen in Ban Gu's Preface to the Fu of the Two Capitals: "The Imperial Capital plows the palace and plows the city god". History can be found in the biography of Murong Yanyan in the Northern and Southern Dynasties: In the sixth year of Tianbao in the Northern Qi Dynasty (555), Murong Yanyan was guarding Yongcheng, surrounded by the Liang army in the Southern Dynasty, and the situation was critical.

"There is a shrine in the city first, and the common name is the city god. Every public and private prayer. Therefore, to follow the foot soldiers' heart is to ask for help at the same time, hoping to get the blessing of ghosts. In a short time, the wind suddenly blew, the waves were rough and the flood burst its banks. " This is the earliest record of the emergence of the city god to protect the city.

In the Tang dynasty, offering sacrifices to the god of the city god became more popular. The article "Hu Si in Xuanzhou" in the book "Tai Ping Guang Ji" quoted Moon Hee as saying that in the Tang Dynasty, "Wu customs were afraid of ghosts, and there must be gods of town gods in every state and county." ⑤ In the Tang Dynasty, many local butlers wrote articles to offer sacrifices to the God of the Town God. In the fifth year of Kaiyuan (7 17), Zhang Shuo first wrote "Sacrifice to the City God", followed by Zhang Jiuling, Xu Yuan, Han Yu, Du Mu and Li Shangyin. Li, Duan Quanwei, Lu Shu and others wrote The Story of the Town God Temple, while Du Fu wrote The Poetry of the Town God Temple.

In the Tang Dynasty, it became a custom to believe in the city god, so that "floods, droughts, diseases and epidemics must be sought" ⑤ During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the city god had a title. According to volume 34, Worship of Emperor Yuan Gui, in the first year of Qing Dynasty in the late Tang Dynasty (934), the emperor wrote a letter to Hangzhou Huguo Temple, changed it to worship King De, and the city god changed it to King Baoning in Shunyi, and made it King Fupu in Huzhou and King Debao in Yuezhou. In 950, in the third year of Yin Di's reign, pirates attacked Mengzhou, and the citizens prayed to God. The city god was not trapped, and he was named the king of inspiration.

The belief in the God of the City God in Song Dynasty has been included in the national sacrificial ceremony. According to "Book of Rites VIII", since Kaibao and the Emperor blessed, all people in the world have been famous for their contributions, such as temples, famous mountains and rivers, and those who can make clouds and rain, and they have been decorated and sacrificed, praying for induction, which cannot be recorded. During the Song and Zhao Dynasties, "soldiers pushed Lu" refers to the Song Dynasty Town God: "Today, I have worshipped several times, giving the temple name to the clan, or knighthood. Those who have not received orders or attacked neighboring counties, or have been handed down by customs, are different from counties. " ⑦ Zhao and Shi also heard about it, and listed dozens of city god gods with temple names.